Brief news story on FanLib's closure

Los Angeles-based FanLib.com, an online site focused on "fan fiction"--fan created stories based on popular characters and movies--has shut down. According to a notice on FanLib's web site, the site will shut down on Monday, August 4th. No reason for the shutdown was given. Fanlib was backed by $3M in venture capital by H.I.G. Capital. paidContent.org's Rafat Ali speculated in a story earlier today that a deal for Disney to purchase the site had fallen through; paidContent had reported a possible deal for the firm by Disney in June.

I'm amazed any studio would want to associate itself with 'fan fiction' of any kind. (perhaps why the Disney deal fell through?) It gives the impression, to an outsider, that that studio condones and approves the creation of such work - which, when it comes right down to it, violates their intellectual property rights. Luckily for those who write and read fan fic, most owners of those properties just don't care about the existence of it.

Disney could have been interested in the "my2centences" portion of FanLib, the software used for the "crowdwriting" projects, which was used for every commercial writing contest FanLib has held, and was probably their only significant source of revenue. The fanfic archive was added on much later, in 2007. The my2centences business began in 2003.

There was a theory on the fanlib forums that Disney had bought FanLib, but was making them shut down the fanfic archive, keeping only the crowdwriting software. I don't think that has happened; FanLib would not hesitate to announce they had been purchased by Disney.

Looks like Disney bought them, and has no interest in a general fanfic site--they appear to want the my2sentences stuff, and the ability to archive Disney-approved fanfic, whatever that might be. I assume silence about the details was part of the contract; thousands of fans in the dark are a lot easier to deal with than thousands of fans who are perfectly aware that you're telling them "we're throwing out everything that doesn't actively promote our sponsor's products in a way we approve of."

I find it odd that Rafat Ali of paidcontent.org has been the only source for the "Disney will buy/is buying FanLib." There has never been confirmation from anyone else; every news article linked back to him.

However, his claim that "Disney will be completely retooling FanLib with a focus on its own properties, instead of fan fiction and other networks' TV shows and movies" is certainly believable. As soon as the Disney rumor first appeared, many FanLib members theorized that would be the outcome. It just makes sense that Disney would want the "crowd writing" software and nothing else.

The Mimbo Brothers' complete silence suggests whatever is going on is not something they want to share.